Never seen it, but familiar with the outline of the film. That phrase gained new currency during the early Tea Pot years, when it was taken as characterising the wild jacobins of the elder persuasion before the GOP co-opted the movement into the more treasured tradition of corporate stooge.
I never heard of this woman until after I saw “Network” (FTR, I was born prior to 1976). When I did, I realized that this movie was inspired, if not outright based on, her story.
“Network” factoid: Faye Dunaway never wore a bra in any scene in that movie.
Wow, *Network * has been one of my favorite films and yet I’d never heard of this. Here’s the clip (it was the film’s screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky who initially comes up to accept BTW). There’s a YouTube comment that states that the producers didn’t want a “weeping widow” on stage, but I think that’s a pretty obvious cover story. Interracial marriage ***was ***still taboo even in Hollywood back then, and absolutely so in general.
I always love remembering how one of the biggest criticisms of Network at the time was that it just went too far, that it collapsed under its own self-parody. Turns out, it didn’t go nearly far enough!
I was born right in the poll’s cutoff year (1976), and I seem to recall watching part of it in a hotel room a long time ago (late 1980s?). Since that time, I’ve heard about it every so often (mostly in reference to the mad as hell line).
I was in grade school when it was released so I didn’t see it until a few years later when it was on TV. Still, I do remember it was considered the favorite for Best Picture until it was upset by Rocky. Also, I remember a common complaint about the movie was the scenario presented was too ridiculous to be believed. Now, it seems quite tame and measured.
I was a child when it came out, and though I’m a film buff and am familiar with the movie, I’ve never gotten around to seeing it (to my shame). I shall have to rectify that; it’s a gap in my education I’m already aware of.
I was born in 1961. I didn’t see **Network ** until I was in my twenties. It’s a MASTERPIECE! So far ahead of it’s time. The writing, the directing, the acting… not a scene is wasted! It might be Ned Beatty’s best role.
And to think, Network, Taxi Driver, All The Presidents’s Men and Bound For Glory were all up for Best Picture in the Oscar’s that year and they lost to … Rocky??? Really???
I don’t think I’ve ever seen it properly, just clips and sound bites; one of a long list of movies that have been pop-culturally embedded in my memory by osmosis but which I haven’t actually watched. There’s something about 1970s dramas that I find off-putting and difficult to concentrate on.
The idea of having Eletha Finch accept the award was advanced by Network producer Howard Gottfried, but immediately nixed by Exorcist director William Friedkin, who was producing the Oscars ceremony that year. This is covered in Dave Itzkoff’s book Mad As Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies. Itzkoff actually devotes several pages to the issue of deciding who would be accepting the award for the late Peter Finch, the controversy this caused in Hollywood circles and in the press, and the stunt the filmmakers ended up pulling at the Oscars ceremony. Here are a couple paragraphs which summarize the arguments that were put against Finch’s widow accepting the award:
In the end, the filmmakers reached an agreement with the Academy that the screenwriter (and main creative force behind the film), Paddy Chayefsky, would accept the award on behalf of Finch. But this turned out to be an act of perfidy on the part of Chayefsky, Gottfried, and Eletha Finch; they had planned all along for Chayefsky to turn the stage over to Eletha.
That must have been quite a feat of prophecy on Chayefsky’s part, considering that he drafted an early version of the film in December 1973, about 19 months before Chubbock killed herself on-air.
Speaking about the Oscars and the film Network, Beatrice Straight is cited by many sources as having appeared in the shortest amount of screen time for any actor/actress in the history of the Oscar Awards, to ever win.
Straight, who played Max Schumacher’s (William Holden) wife, appears for only 5 minutes and 40 seconds in the film. Essentially she just has one single scene (about 4 minutes long) where she confronts her husband as he admits his affair.
She won the Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance.
I hope you got a chance to see The Simpsons episode from last season, “Let’s Go Fly A Coot”. The episode itself is uneven but there’s a spoof of Betty’s monologue in it.
